Daily Comment on News and Issues of Interest to Michigan Lawyers

01/31/2011

ACLU Challenges University of Michigan's Policy on Banning People from Campus

The Free Press reports that since 2001 the University of Michigan has banned around 2,000 people from campus, some for life, and that the ACLU is challenging its policy as broad, vague and subjective. (In contrast, Michigan State University has banned just 57 people since 2008.) U of M's deputy chief Joseph Piersante told the Free Press that the policy is necessary to ensure safety and remove people "who don't have any legitimate reason to be in a certain area or people who are a threat or a danger to our community." President Mary Sue Coleman has directed staff to review the policy.

Andrew Shirvell, the former assistant attorney general who became notorious last fallfor his agitation concerning U of M's first gay student body president, Chris Armstrong, was banned from campus last fall, but can now visit campus provided he stays away from Armstrong. According to the Free Press, attorney Deborah Gordon, who represented Armstrong in his ethical complaints against Shirvell, represents a former employee who is the subject of a trespass warning for the university's medical school. The former employee, Dr. Andrei Borisov, who has questioned the university's use of some grant money and is now subject of a trespass warning the medical school, has filed a wrongful termination action against U of M.

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ACLU Challenges University of Michigan's Policy on Banning People from Campus

The Free Press reports that since 2001 the University of Michigan has banned around 2,000 people from campus, some for life, and that the ACLU is challenging its policy as broad, vague and subjective. (In contrast, Michigan State University has banned just 57 people since 2008.) U of M's deputy chief Joseph Piersante told the Free Press that the policy is necessary to ensure safety and remove people "who don't have any legitimate reason to be in a certain area or people who are a threat or a danger to our community." President Mary Sue Coleman has directed staff to review the policy.

Andrew Shirvell, the former assistant attorney general who became notorious last fallfor his agitation concerning U of M's first gay student body president, Chris Armstrong, was banned from campus last fall, but can now visit campus provided he stays away from Armstrong. According to the Free Press, attorney Deborah Gordon, who represented Armstrong in his ethical complaints against Shirvell, represents a former employee who is the subject of a trespass warning for the university's medical school. The former employee, Dr. Andrei Borisov, who has questioned the university's use of some grant money and is now subject of a trespass warning the medical school, has filed a wrongful termination action against U of M.